


when everyone else knows

by popnographic



Series: SouHaru drabbles [9]
Category: Free!
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-07
Updated: 2015-12-07
Packaged: 2018-05-05 09:46:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5370740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/popnographic/pseuds/popnographic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They're just friends. (But everyone else knows there's something else there that they're too blind to see.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	when everyone else knows

It starts, again—god knows how many times they’ve done this—when Sousuke walks into Iwatobi SC Returns before their first joint race since Sousuke transferred to Samezuka. It starts with Haruka’s back against a vending machine, and not in the way you’d think (ha, if only), but there’s hostility in the air so thick that it makes it hard to breathe. For Haruka, sure, but Sousuke, too.

It continues with weird looks, sometimes glares, them bumping into each other in a lift at a hotel before a race Haruka doesn’t want to go through with. Sousuke confronts him following the race, the race which he didn’t go through with in the end, but Sousuke isn’t hostile this time. He doesn’t back Haruka into a corner—or a vending machine, for that matter—but he tells Haruka to _decide_. Take matters into his own hands, and do with his talent as he should.

Then graduation is just around the corner, and as a last joint activity between the two rival teams, between two groups of _friends_ , they play a survival game with water guns, and Haruka and Sousuke end up cooperating. Such a concept had been foreign to the both of them when thinking of the other, but it turns out that they have a lot more in common than they both had wanted to realise before.

It ends with Sousuke and Haruka going from Yamazaki and Nanase, to Sousuke and Haruka. It ends with acceptance, with an outstretched hand as a sign of apology, a request to start over. And so they do.

But then it abruptly begins, again, and the pace that’s been set for them is so fast neither of them really knows what’s going on before they’re in Sousuke’s apartment, hanging out. Hanging out. If someone would’ve told Sousuke a year ago that he would be _hanging out_ with _Nanase Haruka_ , of all people, he would snort at them and say he’d probably see aliens before that happened.

No aliens sighted so far.

“Stop hogging the popcorn bowl, you ass,” he chides from his corner of the couch. Haruka regards him for less than a second before he loses interest and returns his attention to the television in front of him, deliberately stretching his legs out and making less room for Sousuke on the couch.

“I brought the popcorn,” he says, as if that’s going to actually entitle him to the entire bowl. It isn’t.

“Get your own damn bowl then!” Sousuke says and kicks him.

Haruka surrenders with an annoyed sigh and an eyeroll, and Sousuke takes the bowl stretched out to him with a triumphant grin to grab a fistful of popcorn and shove them into his mouth. Haruka snorts at him.

“Attractive.”

“I don’t have to be attractive to you. You’ll apparently hang out with me regardless of how I look.”

“Lucky you, huh.”

Haruka snickers when Sousuke throws a popcorn at him that flies past his head and onto the floor instead.

 

* * *

 

“You know, you’ve been hanging out with Haruka a lot recently.”

Sousuke raises an eyebrow. “And the sky is blue. Your point?”

“Actually, it’s grey today, if you haven’t noticed, but I’m just saying it’s a weird change. Good weird. I’m glad you two got your heads out of your asses and sorted stuff out.”

“Wonderful imagery right there,” he grimaces. “Well, it was just misplaced anger on my part, and I think he was just angry at me because I was angry at him—“

“Oh god, please stop, you’re making my head spin,” Gou says, sounding horrified. She takes a sip of her coffee—way too sweet for Sousuke’s taste, and he’s not even sure that abomination has the right to even be _called_ coffee to begin with—and clears her throat. “Yeah, it’s a really good thing you two got things sorted out. It kinda annoyed everyone around you, too, especially my brother and Makoto.”

Sousuke holds back a sarcastic comment in response, and instead sighs. Rin’s always had a knack for making it about himself, and maybe in this case he had a _little_ right in doing so considering Sousuke’s and Haruka’s conflict, although one-sided, had stemmed from Sousuke’s childhood obsession with following Rin like a dog following its master. He’s glad Rin hasn’t said anything to him about it himself, because that would most definitely spark a conflict he’ll never be in the mood to deal with.

“Rin tells you about these things?” he asks instead, and Gou laughs sarcastically.

“Him? Telling me about things going on in his life? You’ve got to be kidding, Sou. No, I hear about these things from Makoto. At least _he_ gets to hear those things. You wouldn’t believe that guy’s supposed to be my brother.”

Sousuke smiles, shaking his head. “He loves you, he’s just bad with people who aren’t Tachibana.”

“Or you.”

“My statement still stands.”

 

* * *

 

“Makoto got miffed the other day when I blew him off since you and I already had plans. He didn't _say_ it, but I could hear it in his voice.”

Sousuke stops scrolling on his phone, but Haruka takes said phone from him to continue, because at least he’s a fast reader, unlike some others. “Did you wanna hang out with him instead?”

“We hang out all the time,” Haruka says, frowning a little to himself. He doesn’t like the whole thing that people _still_ seem to think he and Makoto can’t be apart from each other for a day or they’ll wither and die. They’re both grown up, they’ve learnt to stand on their own two feet and walk in directions that are different from the other’s. Different, but still not too far apart for it to be considered a full separation. Not that Haruka wants to be separated from Makoto completely, but being with other people sometimes is just healthy, and normal.

“Whatever you say,” Sousuke shrugs, and then takes the phone away from Haruka—again.

Haruka isn’t ready to drop the subject just yet, however. He lets silence fill the air for a few minutes, but then he opens his mouth again to speak. “Makoto thought we were dating.”

Sousuke inhales so sharply his saliva goes down the wrong pipe, and he ends up coughing violently. Haruka sits back up and waits for him to finish his coughing fit, and when Sousuke stops coughing, Haruka leans his back against Sousuke’s chest again.

“What the _hell_ , Nanase, at least warn me before saying such things.”

“What?” he asks, confused. “We aren’t, right?”

“No! Jeez.”

Haruka huffs and looks up at Sousuke. “You don’t have to sound so offended, Sousuke. Ever heard of tactfulness?”

Sousuke actually looks really regretful for a second, as if he’s just accidentally stepped on his dog’s tail, but then Haruka laughs, and his expression changes drastically.

“Fuck off, Haruka.”

 

* * *

 

There’s a gathering at Kisumi’s the following weekend, and while Haruka doesn’t mind going Sousuke complains out loud to him over the phone when they’ve both gotten the message from Kisumi. It doesn’t happen too often, anyway, and whenever they do get together, Haruka usually has a good time just hanging out with his friends, even if he’s the only sober person of the group.

Haruka greets Kisumi as he normally does when they arrive; friendly, but with some physical distance between them. He likes the guy, of course, but Kisumi has a tendency to be too much, and Haruka still can’t _deal_ with too much.

Neither of them are so-called social butterflies, so Haruka and Sousuke naturally tend to stick together when the others are immersed in conversations neither are too interested in, or don’t actually _have_ anything to contribute to. Sousuke mainly just seems intent on getting drunk as soon as possible, and Haruka sits by, just watching his friends talk, half listening to what they’re saying, but also not really paying attention.

While everyone gets more and more drunk, their conversations make less sense. Haruka smiles to himself where he sits with his knees up under his chin on Kisumi’s couch. He’s never been one to drink, but that doesn’t mean he can’t still enjoy their company. Makoto’s fun to watch when he’s drunk, because he’s _so_ not like himself. Rin is even more of a crybaby than he usually is, Kisumi flirts with everyone and everything—Haruka just _knows_ he’s probably flirting with his reflection whenever he goes to take a piss and then looks at himself in the mirror—and Sousuke’s either a silent grump or the complete opposite; coming out of his shell and being talkative. Haruka finds it interesting to watch it all.

“So I’ve been meaning to ask this for a while,” Rin begins and leans forward. Haruka smells the beer on his breath, and wrinkles his nose. “But when the fuck were you two going to tell us you’re dating?”

Haruka looks over at Sousuke with a surprised look, and Sousuke looks back for about a second before he laughs. Haruka kicks him again.

“We’re not dating,” he responds on behalf of both of them.

“I don’t know where you guys got that from, but no. We’re not.”

Rin blows a raspberry and rolls his eyes. “Look, I wasn’t born yesterday. You’re always sitting next to each other, you hang out _all the time_ , and you practically live together. Don’t tell me that’s not you two dating, because I won’t believe it.”

“I agree,” Makoto says before he hiccups. “You’ve been like this _forever_ , I just assumed you guys were— _hic_ —were dating. And you’re telling me you’re not?”

“Yes,” Haruka says.

“Then does that mean you’re still available, Haru?” Kisumi asks hopefully, and Haruka glares at him, not dignifying him with a verbal response. He lets go of his legs and scoots back on the couch a bit. This isn’t the first time he and Sousuke have been told they seem like they’re dating; he recalls the time Sousuke told him about Gou having asked the same thing. Why they think so is beyond him, because he doesn’t feel like they’ve really done anything out of the ordinary for friends just hanging out.

“Really, you can’t blame us when you’re sitting on his lap every once in a while,” Rin continues stubbornly, and Haruka shrugs.

“Not that I’ll deny it, but that doesn’t mean people are dating. There wasn’t enough room on the couch, and so Sousuke made room. He’d probably do that for anyone else, too.”

“Hell no,” Sousuke says through a short laugh. “No offence to anyone else, but Nanase’s light. I can handle having him sit on my lap, even though his bony ass sometimes hurts my thighs.”

“If you say so,” Rin says, but Haruka knows he still won’t buy it. Not that there’d be anything _wrong_ with dating Sousuke, but the thing is they aren’t actually dating, and people think they are. And for the silliest reasons, too. What their friends describe as things people do when they’re dating, are things Haruka find completely natural, and he’s sure Sousuke feels the same. They’re not really people to get hung up on details, either, and it works out pretty well that way.

He can’t help but feel a little uneasy for the rest of the evening, just overthinking the conversation they had on his relationship with Sousuke. Which isn’t even a ‘relationship’ to begin with—they’re just friends hanging out like friends do.

… right?

 

* * *

 

It’s been a calm and quiet day so far, Haruka’s day having started with a long soak in the tub and now that Sousuke’s come over, they’re spending some time out on the back porch feeding the stray cats. Sousuke scratches one of the cats behind its ear, and he clears his throat.

“Haruka.”

He looks up, but Sousuke’s still looking down at the calico cat who’s now rubbing up against his leg, purring. “What?”

“Can I kiss you?”

Haruka raises his eyebrows in surprise. “Why?”

“To test something.”

“Okay,” he replies with a shrug, and Sousuke gets up to sit down right beside him, the cat by his side having left to eat some of the food left on the plate. Sousuke reaches up a hand to cup Haruka’s cheek, and then he pulls him close, slowly bringing their lips together in a kiss. Haruka lets his eyes slip shut, and he feels Sousuke smile against his lips. They separate, and he sees Sousuke _still_ smiling.

“ _Man_ , I’ve been blind. And dumb as fuck.”

Haruka sighs through his nose, smiles, and softly bumps their foreheads together. “You have.”

“Hey, right back at you, Nanase.”

“Yeah, I know.”

"You know," Sousuke says, brushing Haru's cheek with his thumb, "you could almost say we've already been dating for a while. At least if you were to ask... apparently everyone else."

Haruka shakes his head, smiling. "I can't believe they knew."

"I can't believe we  _didn't_."

**Author's Note:**

> [radiodread](http://radiodread.tumblr.com) @ tumblr


End file.
